Fastening device



y 1943. G. A. HANSMAN FASTENING DEVICE .Ofiginal Filed April 6. 1959 I E A a P 1 W 2 l a (/7M 4 5/ T J ai T a IN VEN TOR. r 7%. W

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I Patented May 11, 1943 FASTENING DEVICE George A. Hansman, Rocky River, Ohio, assignor to Tinnerman Products, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio,

a corporation of Ohio Original application April 6, 1939, Serial No. 266,363. Divided and this application July 22, 1942, Serial No. 451,856

2 Claims.

This invention relates to locking stud fasteners of the character designed for use in installations in which a relatively long shank is required to provide a positive holding means at a point a substantial distance from the head of the fas tener. More particularly, my fastener is a sheet metal strip formed into a head, a shank integral therewith and bent from the head, a yielding tongue out from the shank and diverted therefrom, providing a barb adapted to snap behind a member having anarrow opening through which the fastener may be passed. s

The object of the invention is to provide the fastener of such characteristics that it may be cheaply constructed from a single flat strip of sheet metal, may be readily applied and will-be efficient in service.

The present application is a division of my pending application No. 266,363, filed April 6, 1939.

My invention is hereinafter more fully described in connection with a preferred embodiment illustrated in the drawing and the essential novel features are set out in the claims.

In the drawing, Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the locking stud fastener of this application shown in the relation it assumes, being applied through a narrow aperture in a supporting wall, also shown in the perspective; Fig. 2 is a perspective of the fastener itself; Fig. 3-is a plan of the blank with slits therein ready for the formation of the fastener by the mere' act of bending the blank; Fig. 4 is a sectional view of an installationas sheet metal, wood, fibre board, or the like. A

fragment of the supporting wall is designated generally A, and inasmuch as the instant invention is intended mainly for use with metallic structures, such supporting wall usually is in the form of a metallic panel or plate-like element which is provided with perforations disposed at regular intervals and suitably spaced points along which the trim material or an insulation pad extends in mounted position.

The perforations mentioned preferably consist of substantially rectangular slots at, as shown in Fig. 1, to receive the substantially flat shank of the fastener snugly and thereby retain the same against shifting or displacement from applied fastening position in a completed installation.

My fastener, designated I0, is provided from a thin, parallel sided strip of sheet metal such as represented in Fig. 3,,wherein a portion of the a strip forms a shank leg I l on which is a lug ho1ding element l2 partially severed from the shank by a U-shaped slit l3 and bent at an acute angle to the shank while projecting toward the head; to be described. P

- Intermediate its length the blank is suitably cut (by a U-shaped slit I4 facing in the other direction) to define a tongue [5 which, together with the end portion [6, forms the head member of the device when the blankis bent along dotted line I! to substantially the position shown in Fig. 1, 2, 4, or 5 to extend in a direction approxiof a single piece of metal and having a head, a

flat shank extending from the mid-region of the head and a barb projecting from the bottom portion ofthe shank in an inclined direction toward the head. This makes an extremely simple device.

When the shank is passed through a narrow opening only slightly larger than the shank, as illustrated at a in Fig. 1, the barb l2 thereof readily passes through the opening but will spring behind the plate having the opening and thus lock the fastener in place. This is illustrated in Fig. 4 where in addition to the metal plate A having the opening (1.1 have shown a sheet B-of considerable thickness faced by a thin plate C. The fastener passes through all these members, with the head engaging the outer face of the plate C and the barb engaging the opposite face of the plate A.

The head'sections l5 and I6 may be formed in a generally concave configuration of a single continuous curvature as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 to provide a resilient arched head designed to supply board insulation B or the like, which I can effectively secure to the apertured supporting panel A together with a co cring of rigid trim material C, for example, by means of a fastener of this type in substantially the manner aforesaid even though the fibre board is not sufliciently soft and compressible to provide the desired tight, rigid connection. The fastener head becomes somewhat flattened during the application and thus, when pressure is removed from the head of the fastener-after the lug holding element i2 is disposed in positive locked engagement with the support, the arched head sections l5, l6 produce the necessary axial drawing action on the shank of the fastener to provide a tight, rigid installation' of the parts secured under continuously effective spring tension.

As shown in Figs. 5 and 6, a head structure'of the general formation described but preferably flat is particularly suited for having attached thereto a finishing cap in the form of a sheet metal disk 20 or the like. The peripheral edge portions 2| of the cap are crimped over the ends of the head sections I5, [6 or otherwise formed in the manner of inturned flanges behind which the substantially flat head sections of the fastener lie.

the cap flange or by bending the flange beneath the head.

It will be seen that my fastener, in either or peculiar manner illustrated in Fig. 3 and then is bent to produce a T-head, a shank extending substantially centrally therefrom and the locking barb bent from the body of the shank. When the head of the fastener is of the arched form illustrated in Fig. 2, the additional advantage of automatically applying tension to the shank of the installed fastener is obtained.

When the button head is emplo, ed, I prefer to omit the step of curving the head, leaving the two arms flat and aligned so that the head has the form shown in Fig. 5. In any case, whether the integral sheet metal head is left exposed as .in Figs. 1, 2 and 4, or carries the button cap, as in Figs. 5 and 6, the formation of the fastener The mounting may be accomplished by flexing the head into the interlocked relation with proper with its head, shank and barb is extremely simple, it being only necessary to form the slits l3 and H in a fiat parallel-sided strip of sheet metal and then to bend the blank.

I claim:

1. A locking stud fastener for securing an article to an apertured support, said fastener being made from a single parallel-sided strip of sheet metal cut and bent to provide a projecting shank and a head, said head being formed by bending the metal in two directions so that it forms a continuous T at the top of the shank and the shank being of the thickness of the strip and provided with a lug element narrower than the shank and formed from a laterally intermediate region thereof by an inverted U-shaped slit and bent to project normally in a single plane at an acute angle to the shank toward the head of the fastener, said fastener being of spring material so that the lug element may yield substantially into the plane of the shank in passing through the aperture and may thereafter spring outwardly to have its end abut the opposite side of the support.

2. A fastener of the character described made of a single strip of flat spring sheet metal and comprising a T-head, a flat shank leading therefrom and having the thickness of the strip, and a barb on the shank extending in a single plane at an acute-angle to the shank but in the general direction toward said head, the portion of said T-head on one side of the shank comprising a bent-over portion of the strip itself, the portion of the T-head on the other side of the shank comprising a tongue out from the shank by an upwardly facingU-shaped slit and bent in a generally opposite direction, and the barb being cut from the shank by a downwardly facing U -shaped slit and normally diverging from the shank in a single plane continuously from the region of its attachment to the shank to the upper end of the barb, the barb being adapted to be forced sub stantially into the plane of the shank, enabling the shank to be inserted through an opening only slightly larger than the cross section of the shank and thereafter retained by the barb returning to its normal position with its free end at the side of the opening through which it was forced.

GEORGE A. HANSMAN. 

